Purse Finish

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Jenna Magee

Yes, it’s finished! My first attempt at the Two-Hour Tulip Purse. I’m pleased with how it turned out, especially with all of my modifications to the lining and pockets therein, but it’s too wide for me to use. Bummer. I think the front and back panels fit what I’m looking for, but I will need to heavily modify the side panels to cut them down to 2/3 or 1/2 of their current size. I will, however, use this one for a while first and see what other modifications it might require before I take a second shot at it.

I quite enjoyed playing around with this pattern, fiddling with all of the inner pieces and then putting it all together. In fact, since I finished the purse on Saturday, I felt quite annoyed on Sunday that I didn’t have any of it to work on anymore. I guess that’s a strong indication of how much fun I had with it. 🙂

Here are some photos for you. The colors aren’t quite accurate in most of them, but it is quite hard to reproduce them correctly. These are pretty close, though.

The front:

A bit of the side:

Credit card slots inside the inner back pocket:

A pocket in the right side lining for my new iPod Nano:

There is a similar pocket diagonally across the purse, in the left side lining, for my earbuds. And here’s a shot of the bottom, so that you can see how the four tulip-shaped pieces came together:

All in all, the pattern and assembly were fairly straightforward. There were only two questions I had when putting it together, both of which were easily answered by Terry. One of them was due to not reading the instructions carefully enough and the other was just an inability to clearly conceptualize the construction in three dimensions. Terry is excellent at three-dimensional visualization and manipulation, so he, of course, understood immediately. I am not worthy. 😉

If anyone is interested in trying this pattern (I would highly recommend it) and my modifications, you can see most of the pocket additions that I made in the above photos. In addition, I did add strips of the heavier outside fabric to the top of the lining to accommodate the magnet, as I had said I would. That worked out quite nicely, though I would really advise that you use a taller strip so that the magnet pieces aren’t so close to the seams. I had to do sections of the topstitching by hand because I learned the hard way that I couldn’t sew that closely to the magnet sections. I snapped a sewing machine needle off quite cleanly in the attempt.

I did not end up using the purse feet due to the way that the points come together at the bottom. The bottom center bows out so I think that the fabric would end up touching surfaces that it sits on anyway, even if I had put purse feet in the approximate corners. I’ll see how it wears while I’m using it. The other thing that I have not yet done on this purse is to sew darts into the sides so that the purse will fold up nicely and reliably when closed. I think that I may reproduce a bit of how my current purse is sewn, which includes darts in the sides, as well as reinforcement of the outside corners as they lie when the purse is closed. I think that will help it to keep its overall shape. If I feel so inclined, I will share photos when that portion is done.

I do have to say that it seems quite boring to me in looking at the front of it. It needs a little decoration of some sort, but I haven’t quite figured out what. I have buttons that would go nicely with it that I might be able to sew on in some sort of configuration. It really needs some sort of decorative strip to break up the expanse of fabric, maybe about 1/3 of the way down from the top. I could potentially stitch some sort of swirly pattern that complements the paisley pattern in the fabric and tack that on. I already know that I have a shade of DMC that perfectly matches the brown lining, as I used it to tack the lining down.

Which reminds me, that’s one other addition that I did. I hand-tacked the lining to the outer fabric along all four seams, from the top to the bottom points. It was tedious, but the lining lays so much more nicely that way.

So, if anyone has any recommendations on decorative touches for the front and/or a free border pattern that I could stitch onto cream/tan fabric with brown thread and then tack onto the front, I would greatly appreciate it.

Posted in Crafting | 7 Comments

Taking a Chance

Posted on November 14, 2010 by Jenna Magee

This past Wednesday, I was coming back from a regular appointment that takes me past the nearest Michaels craft store. This frequent temptation has led me to run amok many times and Wednesday was no different. I still had one Tinker Bell piece from Disney left to frame. This one is a limited edition reproduction of a series of seasonal cels (and yes, that’s spelled correctly – check it out on Wikipedia). It was pre-matted when I bought it, which posed a little bit of a challenge, as I’m not thrilled with the color of the mat, but it has the limited edition information embedded in the center, so I can’t just replace it. Anyway, I was waiting to see how well they did with the large Tinker Bell and Pooh’s Garden (I haven’t posted a photo of this yet, as I haven’t yet been able to hang it) posters before I took in any more work to them. Fortunately, they did such a nice job on both pieces that I didn’t hesitate to try them again. So, in she went.

While I was at it, I’ve had my first real framed piece of cross stitch, that I started in high school and finished in or after college, sitting on my mantle for years now in a frame that… um… how do I say this nicely… doesn’t suit my tastes. My dear mother, bless her heart, had Terry smuggle the piece off into the mail to her so that she could frame it for me as a gift many years ago. Unfortunately, her choice of frame never exactly rang my bell. Here’s a picture to refresh your memory:

I’m not sure why she chose a gold frame when there is nary a lick of gold in the piece. Trust me, the frame is bright, brassy, gold, not what’s pictured there. Yes, there is brown in her wings, but really, the frame has always leapt out at me as not really suiting the piece. Silver would have made much more sense. I bought some silver paint and some antiquing glaze a week or so ago with the full intention of stripping and refinishing the existing frame, but I brought her with me to Michaels, just to see what they had. I figured I might have them cut a custom frame and some glass for me, or even just a frame and reuse the existing glass, if I found something that worked well for her.

I happened to get a knowledgeable and proficient framer who really seemed to know her stuff, so I started firing questions at her about how they dealt with needlework pieces, etc. As it turns out, their process for dealing with needlework is not as heinous as I had been lead to believe. They don’t lace the piece, but I doubt that even my LNS does that. Instead, they mount it to acid-free foam core with pins. No glue, nothing seriously nasty, wrong, or damaging. In fact, the woman seemed to know all about working with aida fabric (on which this piece was stitched). She could see where the piece had been stretched incorrectly and was out of square (sorry Mom!) and believed that they could fix it. Overall, I was quite pleased with the answers I was getting from her. Enough so that I decided to leave the piece in their hands to see how they make out with it. Terry and I had both thought that she should stay in a simple frame, with no matting, but I changed my mind. We picked out a lovely silver, brushed metal frame that goes nicely with the silver frost that she is blowing from her hand (she is named Frost Fairy, after all). I thought it wouldn’t hurt to try looking at a couple pieces of mat board for her, while I was there. Lo and behold, we came up with a combination of a small amount of silver directly against the piece and white that matches her dress (which actually happened to be in the violet category) as the primary mat. I should have her back in about 2 weeks and I am truly anxious to see how she turns out. Rest assured, I will inspect her carefully before signing off on their work and taking possession of her. If she’s not square, I’ll not be satisfied.

The question that now springs to mind is: if they do a good job with Frost Fairy, how will they handle linen? And do I test them further? Maybe I’ll take a linen piece with me when I go to pick up Frost Fairy and see what happens. After that, though, I really need to stop. I’m going to go broke with all of this framing!

Posted in Stitching | 2 Comments

Gratitude

Posted on November 13, 2010 by Jenna Magee

Remember the Brush ‘Em project from a couple of months ago that I got back from the framer last month? Well, I saw my friend last week to get my teeth cleaned and I brought it along with me. No fancy wrapping, unfortunately, as I don’t seem to have anything in wrapping paper that is not Christmas- or winter-themed. So, I wrapped it in the brown craft paper that the Tinker Bell post was wrapped in by Michaels.

I had actually mentioned to her husband a few days before (remember, we both work in IT at the same company) that I was going to be bringing her a surprise gift. He thought that the timing was excellent, as she’s had a really rough month or so. Her grandfather died a little over a month ago and now her grandmother has been found to have cancer. I believe it is stage 4, if I’m remembering correctly what he said. Poor gal!

When I walked in the door of the dentist’s office and checked in with a brown paper-wrapped parcel under my arm, I think that I piqued the curiosity of the receptionist, based on the quick glances that I kept seeing her take. My friend came out to get me a few minutes later and we greeted with our usual hugs and kisses. She really is a total sweetheart and I love her to bits! She’s been taking care of my teeth for years and we’ve gone through a lot of life’s ups and downs together. It’s funny how close of a bond we’ve developed, even when we only see each other twice a year!

Anyway, as soon as we got back to the room, I gave her the gift. She seemed shocked and genuinely pleased that I would gift her with anything at all. She decided to open it right away, which I heartily endorsed. She was so happy with it; I can’t even begin to tell you. She was so excited that she ran out and was telling the staff and everyone about it. Women kept poking their heads in to see it and one of them left the room with it to make the rounds so that everyone in the office could see it. Needless to say, it has to be the most well-received stitching gift I have ever given in my life. One of the women stopped in to say that I needed to make 3 more because the other hygienists all wanted one. I just grinned, but after she left, I looked my friend in the eye and said no way, this is a special gift only for her!

She appreciated it so much; we were both overwhelmed. She decided to take it home since she only works in that particular office one day a week. She says she has the perfect place to hang it and that the colors coordinate perfectly with her bathroom. She exclaimed over and over again about how talented I was, though I assured her that it was easy and that I could show her how to do it. I was just beyond pleased with her reaction. I was over the moon, really. When I came out, Terry said that it was the talk of the office.

Days later, I got this in the mail, with a handwritten note about how much she loved her “work of art:”

I’m so glad that I was right when I thought that I knew that she would be a good person to stitch for. I have had mediocre and even no reaction whatsoever (not even an acknowledgment, even though I know that the gift was received because it was hand-delivered by my mother) to things that I have stitched for people before, so it was nice to find that this leap of faith was a sound one.

Posted in Stitching | 3 Comments

Sew Necessary

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Jenna Magee

Anna raised a good point in her comment to my last post. Yes, I will finally be able to invite people into my home once I have finished cleaning up. That will be a first in many, many years and is long overdue. I still have the dining room that I will need to clean up before Christmas anyway. I have products for my ONS spread everywhere that desperately need to be entered into my accounting software and the storefront. Unfortunately, the accounting software seems to have gone bust and won’t do anything with regards to reports (I was trying to check my sales tax liability so that I could file the return for last quarter) without crashing. I’m afraid to try any other functions. I’m going to have to try to reinstall and see if I can just limp it along until the end of the year when I will officially switch that business over into QuickBooks. The Microsoft Small Business Accounting package that I’ve been using for years was giving me fits and is so overly complex that when they decided to stop supporting it earlier this year, it was a good excuse to move to QuickBooks. QuickBooks now supports multiple currencies, which is why I chose MS Accounting in the first place, so it will be nice to switch to an industry standard accounting product for small businesses.

Oh, and to answer Von‘s question, yes, I will post pictures of the reorganized office, including the nice new desks, once we’ve finished cleaning up. Which will hopefully be soon!

Anyway, I got off track. What I really meant to blog about were my sewing endeavors yesterday. I didn’t include it in yesterday’s weekend report, even though I spent hours on it yesterday. I really should have been stitching, but I had the irresistible urge to sew. You see, I have been trying desperately, in vain, to find a purse to replace my existing one. It’s nice and little, but I have outgrown it by about an inch in the tall dimension. Plus, it has arm straps, not full shoulder straps. The hunt for a commercially produced bag that small has been completely futile, though I certainly tried really hard. So, I decided to make my own. I found one that I think will fit the bill and I found it pretty readily, which was lovely. With one Google search, I quickly found PursePatterns.com, which is an amazing resource for purse patterns. I chose the Two-Hour Tulip pattern, as seen on the front page of twohourtulip.com:

I then went out to Joann.com and chose two heavy home decor fabrics. Luckily, the home decor fabrics where on sale. :mrgreen: One was only $5 so I pulled that one for a test run and a more expensive ($13 a yard on sale) pattern that I liked a little bit better for the real thing. Add in a total of three lining fabrics because I wasn’t sure if the colors that I picked were going to work once I put them together in real life, plus magnet closures and purse feet and you have the makings of a purse!

Here’s the less expensive fabric:

And the more expensive:

I bought a dark brown lining (the color is called potting soil) for the first one and a fuchsia lining for the second. Incredibly, both worked out quite well. I bought antique gold feet and magnetic closure for the first and gold ones for the second.

Of course, you know me. I can’t just follow the pattern. No, I’m heavily modifying the inside. The outside will look the same (sans pocket: I hate outside pockets), but the inside will look more like my current purse. Not only am I putting pockets on both the front and back of the inside, but inside the one pocket, I am putting staggered credit card pockets. It’s exactly like what I have in my current purse and I love them. I’m also sneaking in a small pocket on one of the sides for my new iPod Nano. And maybe a matching one on the other side for the earbuds. I just thought of that. See what you made me do? 😆

At the top 1.5″ of the lining, I am putting a strip of the outside fabric, both for a little extra interest and to hold the magnetic closure. I see all sorts of bad things happening if I try to attach the closure pieces just to the lining fabric. Riiiiiiiiiiiiip! My current purse actually has a faux leather strip on the inside that serves the same purpose. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to add the purse feet at the bottom, due to the way that the purse is put together (four tulip-shaped pieces that come together at the points to form the bottom), but I am going to try my best. My current purse has faux leather on the bottom and I’d rather keep the fabric bottom of this one from sitting directly on surfaces.

Despite the title, I didn’t actually put many stitches in yesterday. The only things I stitched up were the shoulder straps. Everything else was a lot of cutting out and interfacing. It was time-consuming, especially since I was winging all of the little pieces that will make up the card holders and the Nano pocket. Today should see things starting to come together, I hope. So, a two hour purse project? I think not. Maybe if you kept it simple and stuck to the pattern and you were an experienced seamstress, but I did and am none of those. 😉

I will, of course, show pictures when the purse is done. And maybe during the construction process. Who knows…

Posted in Crafting | 5 Comments

More Cleaning and Stuff

Posted on November 7, 2010 by Jenna Magee

Sorry for that last post. I really had to get that out (no pun intended), but I know that not all of you appreciated that. 😆

This weekend has been quite full of work here on the homefront. I had to do some programming both days for work to make sure I could meet a deadline of tomorrow for an application I was writing. I lost a day this past week, due to feeling ill. Add to that some major changes that came through early this week and I had some serious work to do. I just can’t code when I’m not feeling well. It’s hard to think and usually dangerous to even try, as I tend to make more work for myself in the long run.

I had ordered new “L” desks for our home office a few weeks ago from an online store. We have been trying desperately to clean out the room because the new desks are large and were going to take up the entire back wall. To install them required us to clear the entire room, except for the bookcase. The black laser printer on the file cabinet was rolled into the closet (once that was mostly cleaned out). The computer cart that had my iMac on it was disassembled and moved out into the hallway, along with the iMac. The printer cart with my color photo printer on it was emptied of its contents and also moved into the closet to hold printing and other large office supplies. This left my desk and Terry’s desk, both of which were along the right wall. The new desks were also going to take up half of the left and right walls, in addition to the back wall, so we still had work to do after that.

However, the desks arrived in their boxes (the whole way from Canada, in less than a week after they were shipped) over a week ago, so last weekend we were anxious to pull open at least one of the boxes and assemble one of the desks. Since the area where my desk was going to reside was open and ready to go, we decided to tackle mine last weekend. I was a little anxious, as I had read a bunch of reviews that talked about how difficult the desks were to assemble, that the instructions were inadequate and yadda yadda yadda. It turns out, it would have taken us about 2 hours, if we hadn’t made a mistake on one piece and had to pull several others apart in order to redo it. In fact, when Terry put his desk together yesterday, he was able to do it almost entirely by himself in 2 hours or less. No clue what people were complaining about.

So, my desk is in place and, as of yesterday evening, fully loaded up and ready to go. I even have the dock for my laptop hooked up to the switch and ready for a productive day of work from home. Yippee! Terry has loaded his desk up, as well. He was even able to fit the iMac on his desk, so it won’t go to waste (hopefully). When we finish cleaning up his old desk and the floor, we will have a ton of floor space that we haven’t had in years, I think. Enough that we should be able to setup an inflatable mattress on the floor to handle more simultaneous visitors, should the need ever arise. Since we only have one spare bedroom, it doesn’t hurt to have additional sleeping space, just in case.

Terry has even started loading up my old desk in our home office (which was moved into the space where his desk had been sitting) with his electronics equipment that is currently sprawled out on a card table in the family room. I will be really happy when he clears that off so that we can fold up the card table and put it back into the basement. It will clear up a good bit of floor space in our cramped family room. Once we finish finishing the basement this winter, we’ll be able to move the Gazelle down there and free up the last bit of space in the family room. It will be like an entirely new room!

I’m pretty excited. This cleaning spree that I’ve been on for weeks has really been paying off. We have thrown away probably a dozen bags of trash, along with a lot of empty boxes and boxes full of more trash. We have donated several bags of items to Goodwill, along with our old 36″ tube TV that we replaced nearly two years ago (Christmas) and had been sitting in our garage, taking up valuable space. Terry’s dad helped us take that one to Goodwill while he was visiting with us briefly (less than 24 hours) a few days before my birthday. Of course, he left a small snowblower in its place for me to use on the sidewalks in the winter, but hey, we’re trying. 😉 He actually took our little gas-powered generator with him, since we no longer need it. So, there was a net gain in space or at least cleanliness.

I also started cleaning out the kitchen pantry. It has been in dire need of a good purge for… well… years. I was able to tackle the floor and the top shelf in the evening one of the days this week. There are still 3 shelves left to go. In the meantime, I looked out in the garage and found the extra shelf that I want Terry to install between the bottom shelf and the floor. I need to measure and mark the new shelf so that Terry can cut it down. It needs to be cut by hand with a hacksaw, so I would prefer that Terry do it; however, I may do it myself, as I’ve been feeling really independent lately and have been doing a lot by myself. I am woman, hear me ROAR! Anyway, once we get the new shelf installed, I’ll be able to move all of the Tastefully Simple items that have been being “stored” on the floor in my reading room for months into the pantry, freeing up space there.

My goal, basically, is to free up as much space in the house as possible. Well, my real goal is to clean up the house, but a serious side effect is freeing up a good bit of space and I couldn’t be happier because the house has been feeling really cramped lately.

I still need to re-clean up my craft room. Remember how I said that I reorganized it and cleaned it a couple of weeks ago? Yeah, well, I had a major series of crafting binges, so there are projects all over, in all states of progress. I still have all of the rubber stamping and scrapbooking supplies out everywhere because I have one paper bookmark left to put together for Terry’s step-mom. While everything is out, I think I’ll whip together two paper corner bookmarks for myself, as well. I have enough unread real books that I can still use bookmarks. I also had the inspiration to make a beaded book cord for Nan, as well, so that is in progress, with beads and supplies laid out all over the place. I will get it all cleaned up, though. Before Christmas. Or over Christmas. Whatever. 😀

Posted in Life in General | 3 Comments

I’m So Proud of Myself!

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Jenna Magee

Okay folks, I’m warning you right now. This is another probable TMI post. Remember the one I did a while back about doggy anal glands? Consider this a follow-up. You may wish to skip this post because it’s going to be a little gross. In fact, I’m not sure exactly why I’m posting it, except for the fact that I am excessively proud of myself.

Abby started having another problem this week. Yesterday, I realized that she hadn’t defecated in over a day, which is unusual for her because she’s a regular pooper. Once a day, every day. She’s very predictable. So, when she doesn’t go, there’s a problem. She start scooting yesterday, too. Which, for her, is very different from any scoot I’ve ever seen out of a dog. She doesn’t do the grinding her butt into the carpet as she moves across the floor. No, she can’t be normal. After all, she’s one of my dogs. 😉 She sits and spins around, left and then right, very rapidly. You can’t tell if she’s just wound up and being playful or what. I should have guessed, as I now remember that she’s done this before. Mental note made. Hopefully, my recall mechanism will work in the future.

< -- begin really icky stuff -->

Anyway, she was acting a bit odd, so after she did a sit and spin cycle, I had Terry hold up her hind quarters so that I could check her behind. Her anus looked just a little puffy, so I squeezed just a bit to assess and she gave a little squeak. Yep, that’s it. I had Terry take her outside to see if she would defecate. I told her, she was either going to poop for Daddy or get the finger. She didn’t poop, so she got the finger. And by that, I mean that I had to express her anal glands. From the inside out. Yeah, I went there. Into the nether regions of my poor dog with a finger.

Let me back up a second first, though. We were at the vet with Lily a couple of weeks ago when she was having the bloody stool. I probably didn’t mention that. Yes, she now gets probiotics and Metamucil with her dinner. What a fuss. Doggie daycare will love dealing with that the next time we board them. But that’s a whole different story. Anyway, while we had her in, I asked if they would show me how to express the glands. I had discussed this with a different vet (there are several at this clinic and I love them all) the last time we were in and he said it would be no problem. I decided that it was necessary since Lily is pretty full just about every time she’s in to the vet. Might as well save a little money ($25 for the office visit and $15 for them to express the glands) and do it myself. That way, I can take care of her as soon as she starts to scoot. So, this time when we were in, I mentioned it to the tech, along with my litany of topics to discuss with the vet. She looked at me oddly, like I might not be quite in my right mind. She might have even said, “Really?” I don’t remember. So, the vet comes in a few minutes later and we start talking through everything, mainly focusing on her bowel issues. I repeat the same thing to him that I told the tech. I want to learn how to express her anal glands, especially since she has regular issues with them. I got a strange look and reaction from him, as well. He told me that very few pet owners are willing to do it themselves. But then, I’m not your average furmommy. I’m all for regular, preventive care at home to keep my dogs healthy and happy. I mentioned before that Phoebe had a rupture anal gland once. It wasn’t pretty and it was painful for her. It’s not something that I want to have happen to another animal ever again. So, I’m willing to do what’s necessary. Bring it on.

So, the vet and I both gloved up and lubed up. He said that I am fortunate to have such thin fingers, so that I can still use my forefinger, even though Lily is so tiny. I inserted one finger, felt around and found the gland. Unfortunately, I then lost it and wasn’t able to find it again, so I couldn’t actually express it, but I think he was impressed that I was able to find it in the first place. So, we agreed that I would practice on her some other time, as she was quite done with us probing her by this point and was whimpering.

I hadn’t yet bothered to practice. But yesterday, the time had come. This was it. Do it or take Abby in and have them check her. I was pretty sure, though, that those darned glands were the problem. I took a deep breath and dove in (gloved and lubed, of course, with a tissue in hand). She was much easier than Lily, being larger in size. I felt something odd, though, as I started in. What the heck? There’s something definitely wrong or strange going on in her anus. Oh wait, that’s a poop. Ew. Yeah, she’s holding it in, so there’s a serious gland problem. I found the left one pretty easily and squeezed, with the forefinger on the inside and the thumb on the outside. I’m getting nowhere here. Am I really squeezing the gland? Or is it a roll of skin/tissue? Hmmm… No, it’s a definite bulbous structure. Long story short, there’s actually an art to expressing these darned things. And what came out was definitely not normal. That girl’s gland was stopped up like you wouldn’t believe. Terry said that she was really tense when I started, but as soon as I expressed the left gland, she relaxed noticeably. She still wasn’t happy, mind you, but then I wouldn’t be either, if I was her. Or is it if I were her? Anna?

Anywho… Left gland, check. Right gland, check. Well, while I’m at it, I might as well put on a new glove and get Lily, as well. She’s abnormal, big surprise. The glands are supposed to be at the 5 o’clock and 7 o’clock positions. Which is where Abby’s were, pretty much. Lily’s? No, she has to be different. This is why I had trouble finding them at the vet’s office and thought that I couldn’t possibly be in the right spot when I felt what I thought were her glands. Hers are at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock. That’s why. That’s my little Lily. She’s a little off. Her right eye is off and her anal glands are off. Oh, and her personality is off, too. She’s definitely… um… unique. 😉

< -- end really icky stuff -->

There we go. Both dogs taken care of. Now, the real proof would be in the pudding. Oh. Perhaps that wasn’t the best analogy. 😆 The next time Terry took Abby outside, I wanted to see if she would poop. And there she went. Awesome.

I have rarely been this proud of myself. I took on a challenge that most pet owners wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole. And really, there’s a good reason for it. That stuff stinks. I could smell it for hours. But the payoff was well worth it. And I can care for my dogs even better than before. I rock.

Posted in Going to the Dogs | 5 Comments

Birthday Weekend Crafting

Posted on October 26, 2010 by Jenna Magee

My parents were supposed to come down this past weekend for my birthday, but plans changed at the last minute when my mom’s dog became ill and then my mom herself came down with a cold. So, when Terry asked me Saturday afternoon what I wanted to do, I came up with a couple of lingering crafty projects, of course. Terry really knows his stuff when it comes to sewing, so I knew I wanted his help to create the tote bag for my first counted canvas project. You may or may not remember that I bought the fabrics for it a while back. We took measurements and formulated a plan. The outside of the bag came out beautifully, with enough of the heavy fabric left to do a larger tote bag when I graduate to a canvas design larger than 12″ x 12″. Unfortunately, neither of us calculated correctly for the lining, so I ended up throwing a good chunk of that fabric into a scrap pile. That turned out to be indicative of how the rest of the evening would turn out. I had to do the lining twice. And Terry apparently burnt the first batch of sauce for my birthday dinner. Other things went awry, too, but the important thing is that I was able to successfully finish the bag Sunday night.

I think it turned out really well. It’s so cute!

I also have a photo of another framed piece to share with you. Again. 😉 This one is a quilled piece that I made over 3 years ago:

I think I may have mentioned a few posts ago that I happened to pull a frame out of my stash that fit this piece perfectly. The frame is kinda crappy, but at least it’s something! With the backing cardstock of the piece being white, as well as both of the mats, it needs a little bit of color, so I might try coloring the inner mat with purple or green chalk.

I was going to give this away to my mother or step-grandmother for Christmas, but I’ve decided to keep it to myself. I’m already stitching a piece for my mother for Christmas and my step-grandmother is looking to downsize into an assisted living facility in the near future, so she really doesn’t need anything more to have to make a difficult decision about keeping or letting go. Besides, I don’t have much quilled work to begin with and nothing on display!

Posted in Crafting | 4 Comments

Combining Stitching and Scrapbooking?

Posted on October 25, 2010 by Jenna Magee

Last night, I received the weekly newsletter from Nordic Needle and one of the topics was around creating a portfolio of stitching work. I have often considered creating a scrapbook of my stitching accomplishments, but I have yet to actually act on that thought. I think that I’m pretty good about keeping a photographic record, so really it wouldn’t take much to translate that into a physical medium. I would have to keep up with it, though, or it could become a monumental task.

My question to you, dear readers, is – have you ever created any sort of physical journal of your stitching? If you have, I’d love to hear about what you’ve done!

Posted in Crafting, Stitching | 5 Comments

Bookmarks and More Framing

Posted on October 20, 2010 by Jenna Magee

Are you sick of pictures of recent framing work yet? No? Good, because there’s more in this post. After this, though, there are only a couple of pieces left to frame. :mrgreen:

First, though, I have more bookmarks to show that will be Christmas gifts for my father-in-law’s wife. These are made out of fabric. The front sides are made from lovely brocade fabrics that I bought in small bundles at Joann Fabrics some time ago and never used. The back sides are made from coordinating dupioni silk fabrics that I also had in my fabric stash and never used.

The first set is yellow and gold:
Front –

Back –

The second set is green:
Front –

Back –

And now for the framing.

First up is the large Tinker Bell poster that I bought in WDW last month. We went and picked up both framed posters from Michaels yesterday and they did an excellent job.

So, here she is, in all of her glory, though the colors are not captured quite correctly:

Next is my Brush Em piece that I’m giving to my dental hygienist (she’s also a friend) in a couple of weeks:

The frame is a Molly Made frame from my LNS and the piece was also framed by my LNS. Molly painted the frame to match the piece’s border color. I then had her mount a container of floss in the corner and run the floss along the bottom of the frame. The labeling on the floss container is significant because both my hygienist’s husband and I work for the same company and our company used to make Glide floss. So, I just knew that I had an old branded container around somewhere. I really had to dig for it, but I finally found one.

I have to admit that I’m a little disappointed in the work on this one. I think it was a rush job. I had dropped the piece off of July 31st and talked to Molly about what exactly I wanted. When I stopped in at the store earlier this month, I was shocked to find out that, after over 2 months, it wasn’t ready yet. In fact, it sounded like the frame hadn’t even been prepared yet when I talked to the framer. All of a sudden, about a week later, it was done, which surprised me. The paint job isn’t the best and there are a few other things that I could nitpick, but at least it’s done. Next time, I’ll do it myself.

The last framed piece I have to show (this time) is my Woof Blocks Flip-It by Lizzie Kate:

The frame is a new copy of the brown one that I found out was bad during my crafting day from h***. I figured out while I was trying to find a good one yesterday at Michaels what the problem is. They use a soft plastic at the corners for protection and the plastic is sticking to the finish and pulling it off in spots. I went through every frame they had before I found that the last one at the very back was decent enough to use.

I’ll be buying stripper tonight (hopefully; if I’m not too tired) to remove the bad paint from the other two frames and then new paint so that I can try again. I still need a white one out of the two and the other will just be a spare.

I have just a couple of more pictures to share with you. While I was heading to the checkout with the new brown frame for Woof Blocks yesterday, I stumbled across a bin of boxes on clearance. They really caught my eye and I just had to have one:

It’s not the highest quality, but: a) it was only $7.99; b) I can clean up a few spots; and c) it’s supposed to look like an antique. The nifty handle is unfortunately plastic, so I might keep my eyes out for an antiqued brass one that might fit nicely it its place.

I have no idea what I’m going to use the box for. It’s about 10″ wide, 8″ deep and 6″ high. Any ideas?

Posted in Crafting, Stitching | 4 Comments

I Think That Something is Wrong With Me

Posted on October 18, 2010 by Jenna Magee

Now, don’t laugh. Yes, I know I’m a quirky, crazy gal. Let me be serious here for a moment, though.

For the past two or three weeks, I have been really, really clumsy. I mean clumsier than normal. Being tall, I have a high center of gravity, so my sense of balance is horrible and has been for many, many years. However, this is different. I have smacked into things until I’m black and blue in numerous places. I hit the same spot on my arm multiple times to the point where not only was the bruising quite ugly, but now that the bruise has dissipated, there is still a divot in the skin and a painful bump under the skin. Tonight, I closed the door to the laundry room on my right fingers. Gave a hard shove to the door and my fingers were still on the jam. I now have a little blood blister at the cuticle line of my right middle finger.

Terry says that he hasn’t really noticed, but I have. And it’s not normal. I haven’t been able to hear as well, either, but I suspect that relates back to the Maroon 5 concert. So, what’s up with the unusually bad clumsiness? I’m wondering if it has to do with the fact that I have just doubled my headache preventative in the last two weeks. When I started Gabapentin originally a few months ago, I looked up the side effects and the top few side effects were drowsiness, dizziness, fatigue and sleepiness. Just now, I looked them up and WebMd has changed their way of listing side effects. Number 2 on the list of common side effects of Gabapentin? “Uncoordinated – Severe.” Well then. I guess that settles it.

So, the question is, do I go to the family doctor and talk to her about it to see if she agrees that it could be the Gabapentin? Or do I call the neurologist and tell him what’s going on? Right now, I’m leaning towards the latter. I need to get a cervical spine series of x-rays, so when I go into the family doc to review those results, I’ll mention the problems to her then.

I guess I will go put a note in my calendar to call tomorrow. I’ll add it after the reminder to call the vet about Lily’s continued bloody stool. *sigh* My plate is full.

Posted in Life in General | 7 Comments